


Woven Together (For Better Or For Worse)

by Oblivion_Wanderer



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Found Family, Other, nonbinary Lyf, references to OUAT(IS), retelling stories in song as a form of entertainment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23721421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oblivion_Wanderer/pseuds/Oblivion_Wanderer
Summary: The one thing Lyf had gained in the wake of all the madness that destroyed their previous life, in spite of that, was love and a family again. It’s not the most ideal, but it’s enough.
Relationships: Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 8
Kudos: 136
Collections: Mechs Fic Exchange





	Woven Together (For Better Or For Worse)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writingfromthevoid (astrifer0us)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrifer0us/gifts).



> Hello there! surprise pinch-hitter for this one! So, the story is I woke up the other day, and half asleep saw a request to fill a prompt for this fic exchange. Me, in my still-waking-up state, said, "okay sure". So i pretty much spent all of work plotting this out in my head. 
> 
> That said, this is for the Mechs Fic Exchange, and this is also for writingfromthevoid (luciferxrising), who requested the following- "listen i love some good old marius/lyf, also nb lyf! also any shenanigans w the mechanisms together, found family tropes (begrudging or not), also I love the ouat(is) album so anything concerning that is awesome!!"
> 
> I tried to mix as much of this together as I could. I hope it is to your liking ^^

It’s getting to be well into the evening, but time doesn’t necessarily exist in a normal manner aboard the ship. Also, Marius doesn’t really want to move at the moment.

He’s currently sitting with Lyf on one of the couches in the common area of the ship. More precisely, he’s busy braiding Lyf’s long, beautiful hair into a simple three strand braid; hair that is shot through with rainbow. Lyf is currently napping, leaning into Marius, as he carries out this task. For them, hair braiding is a more intimate gesture in the (formerly existing) Yggdrasil system, so Marius made sure to ask them first. They consented, but dozed off soon after he began to tangle his fingers though their hair. It’s quite cute, and also a relief, as Lyf had not been sleeping well lately.

Other members of the Mechanisms are nearby, doing their own thing. Ashes and Jonny are playing cards on the other side of the couch. Toy Solider was here too- well, it was standing off to the side playing a quiet song on the mandolin.

It’s nice, and relatively calm for once. And with Lyf asleep, tucked up against him, Marius might say it was just about perfect.

But of course…

“Dammit, Ashes!” Jonny exclaims, throwing his cards down on the table. Marius ignores him for the time being and continues braiding Lyf’s hair. “I call bullshit on that hand! Also, this is the third match in a row you’ve won tonight!”

“What can I say.” Ashes replies nonchalantly. “Luck of the draw, mate.”

“Oh, fuck off.” He growls, punctuating this by slamming a hand down on the table.

The noise seems to get a reaction out of Lyf, as they flinch in their sleep. Marius, who is finishing the braid and tying it off with a ribbon, hopes it hasn’t fully woken them.

“Come on, guys.” Marius says. “Lyf’s sleeping. Don’t want to wake them now.”

He gently kisses the back of Lyf’s head, just to annoy Jonny.

“Ew. Go be sappy somewhere else.” Jonny comments, his face scrunching up.

“Shut it.” Ashes says to Jonny before speaking to Marius. “How’ve they been?”

“What do you think?” He replies. “They’ve been having trouble sleeping again, what with all the nightmares and the Bifrost stuff.”

“Well, recovery takes time. Even five years down the line.”

Of course Marius knows this. They all knew. The way in which Marius and the others all had gained immorality- their “mechanization”- was not their choice willingly, and every one of them held the mark of that process. Now, Lyf’s situation was vastly different, but as it turned out, one of the more drastic changes was that it made Lyf as immortal as the rest of them. The circumstances behind it were strange, but it was understood that what had happened to them cut just as deep.

(And it wasn’t just the trauma of things they’d seen or what the Bifrost did to them. Marius remembers when they found the ship drifting through space that held Lyf like floating coffin. Lyf had been practically comatose when they were taken aboard; rainbows in their hair and shadowed underneath their eyes, their body cold as can be. They had been pretty much in that state for the following week, till they woke up; when Marius was playing something on the violin by their bedside of all things. “Sleeping Beauty”, he had joked once during that week, remembering the Briar Rose from one of the Mechs older tales, before Marius had joined the crew.)

“They’re a stubborn bastard, I’ll say that much.” Jonny says. “Had a multicolored eldritch horror mess them up and destroy their world, and yet they’re still kicking.”

“They’re just like that.” Marius says with a smirk.

‘ _They’re brave like that.’_ He thinks but does not say. It is still true in his mind though. His stubborn and brave Lyfrassir; touched by the Bifrost and sole survivor of a great calamity. Refusing to die out of spite and so the memory of Yggdrasil can live on through them.

And Marius loved them for all of it.

“I Think Marius And Lyfrassir Are Quite Adorable!” Toy Solider comments, still playing the mandolin.

For a second, Marius thinks Jonny would just straight up shoot it for that comment, and most certainly wake Lyf, but he grabs a pillow from the couch and throws the object at it instead. The pillow hits TS in the face, and while it doesn’t make Toy Solider fall over, it does make them drop the mandolin so it can catch the pillow. The mandolin crashes to the floor and that noise _does_ wake Lyf up.

A small startled gasp comes from them as they wake and sit upright. Marius can see rainbows reflecting in their silver starlight eyes like prisms as they look around.

“What’s going on?” Lyf says. There’s a tremor to their voice as they turn their head to Marius.

“Everything’s okay. TS just dropped a mandolin on the floor because _someone_ threw something at it.” He casts a momentary glare at Jonny, who just rolls his eyes, for waking Lyf. He goes to say something else, but suddenly Lyf winces and puts a hand to their head. “Lyf?”

“Static.” They mutter, closing their eyes. “O-One moment.”

Sometimes this happened. If Lyf had a nightmare or was startled often they would speak of hearing static. Marius assumed the static they heard was due to the Black Box. Back on Midgard, they’d spent days reviewing the initial recordings, which Lyf admitted was likely the moment the Bifrost had taken root in them. The static was one of the more mild side effects from their exposure and subsequent change via the Bifrost, and Lyf had always insisted that when this happened it only lasted a few minutes at most. Didn’t make Marius worry any less.

Soon enough, Lyf’s shoulders slumped, and they let out a heavy sigh. The static they were hearing must have faded by now. They look up at Marius, and he quietly puts his arm around them. Lyf falls back against him instantly.

“You’re okay.” Marius whispers to them.

“Mm...” They hum.

Everyone else, meanwhile, had been silent during this exchange. Now that things had calmed down, Jonny moved to break the silence.

“As sickeningly sweet as this is- You still with us, Lyf?” Jonny asks.

Lyf manages to turn their eyes up at him. “Yes, I think so. Just static.”

“Right… Well, good.”

For Lyf, it was weird hearing that from Jonny, but touching as well. The crew had taken them in as one of their own, especially given the fact Lyf was now immortal (just with different circumstances). While that had frightened Lyf at first, they’ve adapted to this new life, and the rest of the Mechs don’t seem to mind them.

“I’m So Sorry If I Caused You To Wake Up, Lyfrassir!” Toy Solider apologizes, picking the mandolin off the floor.

“Well, that one you can blame Jonny for.” Ashes adds, pointing at him. He gave them the finger in response. “He’s the one who made TS drop the mandolin to begin with.”

Lyf finds themself quietly laughing because of this. “It’s okay, you guys. No harm done.”

“How About A Song To Cheer You Up?” Toy Solider suggests. It then begins singing, “ _Rose, rose, rose red_ -”

“TS, _I_ start that one.” Jonny interrupts.

“It Is A Good Song Though!”

Lyf is slightly confused. They’ve never heard that song before. “Which song is that? I don’t recall having heard it before.”

“Surprised you haven’t yet, but it’s an older one.” Ashes explains. “It’s from the time we spent 30 years watching a civil war in a far off sector. The war between King Cole and the Resistance lead by one General White. If I remember right-” They address Jonny now. “Isn’t that the time you and Nastya broke the Briar Rose out of that defense grid?”

“Oh, yeah that was fun.” He grins.

“Even when she killed you after she woke up?”

“Hey, it was an honor to be killed by a master of the art such as herself.”

Lyf’s still slightly confused, and looks to Marius for answers. “So...”

He shrugs. “I got nothing. I know the story, but this was before me or Raphaella.”

Back to Jonny for answers. “Is this one of your stories then? The ones you tell through song?”

Jonny shares a glance with Ashes before he gives his answer, and they both smile. “Why, indeed it is, Lyf! Back when there was a bit less of our crew, we stood witness to a tale of revolution and lost love. A revolution that lasted 30 years, and began with the greed of a man by the name of King Cole.”

“Are You Going To Tell Them The Story?” Toy Soldier asks, enthusiasm ringing clear in its voice.

“ _We_ are going to tell them.”

Next thing Lyf knows, they’re a singular audience to an impromptu retelling of said story, which Jonny has decided needs to be told to them in the only way the Mechs know how. Jonny even gets Marius in on it, as he knew how to play some of the songs. Jonny alters the narration slightly, since the whole crew is not here at the moment, but he and Toy Solider do most of the speaking anyway (aside from Ashes singing the song of a character named Cinders).

Though, when Toy Solider starts singing a song called “Sleeping Beauty”, Lyf freezes. The songs lyrics call up a memory for them, reminding them too much of something that had happened to them.

When they were fleeing from the Yggdrasil system, it became evident that they could not escape the Bifrost that easy. At some point, whatever the Bifrost did to them overwhelmed them, and they knew nothing but twisted dreams that reflected the images of the Black Box, and the many colors of that chaos. It had apparently been around that time they were found by the Mechanisms, and when they woke- came back to themself- a week later, it was to the sound of Marius playing a violin.

Much like the Briar Rose, Lyf had been trapped in that slumber, in those dreams; wanting to be free from what they were seeing, what was happening to them. Lyf had been told later that they had been kind of like “sleeping beauty” when they were laying unconscious in the medbay for a week. Odin had been there sometimes when Lyf was trapped in their sleep, watching them and chiding them on thinking they were free of the Bifrost.

They remember she said once… “Your prince charming won’t be able to come save you with a kiss, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

Lyf hadn’t known what she meant at the time, but when they heard Marius calling their name…

“ _But I hope my prince will bring a sword.”_ And as Toy Solider sang this, Lyf remembered.

They made a choice on that day, and when they did, they embraced it. They embraced it and took the music they heard and the love of someone they knew was waiting for them and made it into a sword to carve their way out from where they were stuck.

And they woke up, like the Briar Rose.

(Lyf has never told Marius this, only that they heard him while they slept for that week, but maybe they should)

Outside of the reverie, the story goes on. Jonny is excitedly explaining how he and Nastya so boldly saved the Briar Rose; Jonny himself facing off against the Rose Reds. Lyf finds themself smiling, pushing back the memories that were trying to haunt them again. They were actually enjoying this story; it was fun. Also, the Mechanisms were at times the most infuriating people they had ever met, but the group’s part in this tale sounded exactly like something they would do.

Of course, like most tales of the Mechanisms, not all ended well. The end was sad- King Cole ended up dead by Cinders hand, but Rose and Snow had been lost as well. However, like all of the other stories, their efforts did not go unnoticed, as the Mechs had picked up the tale for their band. That was the thing about this group; these stories lived on through their songs, like how the memory of Yggdrasil and what happened lived on through Lyf.

When the story is done and everyone has dispersed for the night, Lyf goes back with Marius to his room. They’re still thinking about Briar Rose, comparing it to what happened to them.

“Remind me to ask Ivy for a full recording of that story.” Lyf says, running their fingers over the braid Marius had done their hair up into, observing the portions that had been permanently stained by rainbows.

“You liked that one, huh?” Marius comments. “You know, when they started talking about the Briar Rose I got a little concerned. You seemed to go a little still when Jonny started in on that part.”

“It, uh- It just reminded me of the whole… coma thing. I wasn’t too far off from how the Briar Rose was.”

“Oh yeah...”

A silence passes between them, and that’s when Lyf decides to bring up the one detail they had failed to mention. “Marius, when I was trapped there, wherever I was when I was in that state, I told you I heard you call for me at one point. There’s something else though.”

They take Marius’s hands in theirs.

“I said I made a choice to get myself out, and I did. The Bifrost runs through my veins in earnest now, but when I made that choice, it wasn’t without action. I remembered how you called my name, and I remembered everything about you; your music, your smile, how I could not let this have you but I knew you were there waiting for me to wake up. I remembered what I felt for you. You didn’t wake me with a kiss, but a sword; you gave me a sword with your music and love. I made my choice and used that to free myself, because I had to come back to you. You saved me.”

They can’t exactly gauge Marius’s reaction, seeing as he’s been quiet while Lyf explains this. After a moment, he gives Lyf an adoring look, smiles, and draws his hands back so he can reach them up to cup Lyf’s face instead.

“Well, I’ve always wanted to sweep you off your feet.” He tells them. “And of course that includes crashing in to save you like the dashing pirate doctor I am. Feeling sentimental tonight?”

“Hush you. The part about Briar Rose got me thinking. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that particular detail.”

“Not that I remember, but when you told me you heard my voice while you were sleeping- that told me enough.”

Lyf just melts, and leans forward to sweetly kiss Marius. They may be changed, forever turned into something else because of the Bifrost, but they’re still here, and their heart is so full of love.

“I still wanted tell you.” Lyf breathes when they part from him. “You and the rest of the crew mean more to me than anything, which is something I never thought I’d say, but here we are.”

Marius pulls them down into bed, holding them close. “We’re all here for you; always. Oh, and I love you.”

Lyf laughs, muffles by how they have their face pressed to his chest. “As do I. And I know- I’m stuck for all eternity with you all, but I’m fine with that.”

Both are absolute truths to Lyf. Things were still difficult sometimes, but the one thing Lyf had gained in the wake of all the madness that destroyed their previous life, in spite of that, was love (via Marius) and a family again (via the rest of the Mechs). It’s not the most ideal, but it’s enough.

They were grateful for both.

**Author's Note:**

> I... also may do something with the "sleeping beauty" bit, because that gave me ideas when I put that there... but that's a tale for another day ;)


End file.
